Calling UAPA ‘undemocratic’, the human rights activist says the State is leaning towards implementing more oppressive and repressive laws
“A person suffers in jail for three to four years and then gets acquitted after the prosecution fails to prove his guilt. This is happening in many cases now. About 97 percent of the arrests were made without any evidence, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) cases,” said G. Haragopal, human rights activists and retired professor from the University of Hyderabad. Read more
Stifling of right to protest, freedom: Open letter to CJI Chandrachud
03/01/2024
SabrangIndia / by SabrangIndia
The open letter has alleged that peaceful protests were met with fake encounters, abductions and demolition of houses belonging to the protesters by police and other government instrumentalities
… Text of the Open Letter:
To D.Y. Chandrachud,
The Chief Justice of India,
Supreme Court of India
2nd January 2024
Dear Justice Chandrachud,
We write this letter to you as a members of democratic-minded civil society and activists who are working on issues concerning democratic ethos of the people and the protection of their civic, democratic, and constitutional rights. Read more / full letter
Open letter from civil rights activists to CJI Chandrachud on freedom curbs
03/01/2024
The Telegraph online / by R. Balaji
The letter alleged that peaceful protests were met with fake encounters, abductions and demolition of houses belonging to the protesters by police and other government instrumentalities
A group of civil rights activists and organisations on Tuesday wrote an “open letter” to Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on the alleged suppression of free speech, peaceful protests and rallies by police, leading to the stifling of democratic dissent in the country. Read more
Open Letter to CJI Chandrachud highlights Concerns Over Erosion of Democratic Rights
03/01/2024
The Mooknayak / by The Mooknayak English
The letter questions India’s commitment to being the world’s largest democracy and refers to the words of jurist John Rawls, stressing the importance of justice and the need to reform or abolish unjust laws and institutions. The plea is for the judiciary to uphold equal liberties and protect rights secured by justice, emphasizing that such rights should not be subject to political bargaining or social interests. Read more
Bhima Koregaon: The process continues to clot as punishment as another year passes by
Many of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad case have now spent one more year incarcerated without a trial. A far cry from the verbiage of high judicial officials that even a day’s denial of liberty is too much.
… Here is a recap of the major developments in the case this year, of bail applications granted, stayed and pending; the consistent pleas for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to comply with the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973; and the courts heeding to medical conditions-related pleas of the accused. Read more
New forensic investigation reveals repeated use of Pegasus spyware to target high-profile journalists
Damning new forensic investigation reveals repeated use of Pegasus spyware to target high-profile journalists
28/12/2023
Amnesty.org / by Amnesty International
Amnesty International, in partnership with The Washington Post, has unearthed shocking new details about the continued use of NSO Group’s highly invasive spyware Pegasus to target prominent journalists in India, including one who had previously been a victim of an attack using the same spyware. Read more
Amnesty International Letter to the Technical Committee appointed by the Supreme Court of India
15/02/2022
Amnesty.org / by Amnesty International
In this letter, dated 15 February 2022, Amnesty International responds to the questions posed by the Technical Committee appointed by the Supreme Court of India to investigate the use of Pegasus in India, received by email on 7 February 2022. Read / download letter
Human Rights Defenders Targeted by a Coordinated Spyware Operation
15/06/2020
Amnesty.org / by Amnesty International
Nine human rights defenders, most of whom have been fighting for the release of the Bhima Koregaon 11 through litigation, research, or activism, were unlawfully targeted with a spyware attack Read more
A retrospective glance at 2023: Have courts effectively safeguarded the diminishing right to liberty for Indian citizens?
“The right not to be denied reasonable bail without just cause is an essential element of an enlightened criminal justice system”
Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundaresh, Supreme Court July 11, 2022
India follows a reformative form of justice system. Our criminal system is founded on the belief of not curtailing the rights of a prisoner and under trial. The system, thus far, also empowers constitutional courts to protect the fundamental rights guaranteed to every citizen of our country. Read more
WBUR / Deepa Fernandes speaks with Suchitra Vijayan
Host Deepa Fernandes speaks with Suchitra Vijayan, co-author of the new book “How Long Can the Moon be Caged?,” which documents how people who speak in favor of Muslims and minority communities have increasingly been arrested and imprisoned by the Indian government.
Podcast en | 9:45min | 2023 Listen to the podcast
Book excerpt: ‘How Long Can the Moon be Caged?’ By Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
A Dalit activist we spoke to said that most people do not encounter the state the way Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims do. She told us: ‘The state has always had a boot on our necks.’ Forget living; imagine what it takes to survive this. The boot is always pressed against minorities’ necks, making it hard to breathe, demanding that they beg for dignity every day. She added: ‘[For us] it doesn’t matter who is in power; oppression is the only thing that hasn’t changed’. Read more
Maharashtra, under Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis, is set to have a new ‘public security’ law where even peaceful expressions of dissent will be targeted.
… ‘Urban Naxals’ has been a favourite bogey of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre, and was used as a label against the Leftist intellectuals arrested for the January 1, 2018 violence at Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra. Read more
Bringing back the ghost of Pegasus malware by the ruling regime, recent alerts from Apple throw up more instances of a state-sponsored surveillance attack on leaders of the opposition and journalists
On the morning of October 31, several journalists and politicians from the opposition parties in India woke up to alerts on their iPhones pertaining to a state-sponsored attack on their phones. The alerts were sent by Apple via message and email. The alert had also alleged that the reason behind the attempts to comprising the phones of the individuals might have something to do with who they are and what they do. Read more
Global Rights Groups Urge FATF to Call on the Indian Govt to Stop Alleged UAPA, PMLA, FCRA Abuse
07/11/2023
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
Three rights organisations – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Security Network – in a joint statement have said that India’s actions have flouted both FATF’s standards and international human rights law.
Recognising the alleged misuse of terror laws in India, several international human rights organisations have urged the global terrorism financing and money laundering watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), to call on the Indian government to stop prosecuting, intimidating and harassing human rights defenders and activists. Read more
India urged to stop ‘weaponizing’ laws to crush dissent
07/11/2023
UCA News / by UCA News reporter
Counterterrorism law, financial regulations are used to target, intimidate, harass, and punish critics, rights groups say
Three global rights groups have urged the Indian government to stop targeting rights activists by abusing counterterrorism and financial laws and called on a major terror financing and money laundering watchdog to intervene.
The Indian government is “weaponizing” the laws to detain and punish rights activists, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and the Charity & Security Network said in a joint statement on Nov. 3. Read more
India’s anti-terror laws being used to target non-profits, activists, says report ahead of FATF visit
04/11/2023
Newslaundry / by Sumedha Mittal
The FATF will visit India this month for an ‘onsite evaluation’.
Ahead of the Financial Action Task Force’s India visit to probe alleged misuse of local laws to crackdown on non-profits, a report published by a US-based rights group has alleged that India’s expanding scope of anti-terror laws have “wide-ranging adverse impacts” on rights defenders and non-profit organisations. Read more
Financial Action Task Force Review Should Document Crackdown on Dissent
The global terrorism financing and money laundering watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)opens in a new tab, should call on the Indianopens in a new tab government to stop prosecuting, intimidating and harassing human rights defenders, activists and non-profit organisations in the country on the pretext of countering terrorist financing, Amnesty International, Charity and Security Network and Human Rights Watch said today. FATF members are to start their fourth periodic review of India’s record on tackling illicit funding on November 6, 2023. Read more
From arrests based on complaints citing ‘secret inputs’ to the seizure of electronic devices without securing them, both cases reveal the malice of the gods of the hell named UAPA.
The Bombay High Court began hearing last week the petitions of professor-activist Shoma Sen and researcher-activist Rona Wilson, two among the 16 booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the Bhima Koregaon case. Their plea is that the chargesheets against them should be quashed as the prosecution evidence against them was fabricated and planted on electronic devices the police seized. Read more
